Interest

Ika Musume Catchphrases on Net Buzzword 2010 List

The Sankei Shimbun paper's web editors announced the results of the Net Ryūkōgo Taishō 2010 (Net Buzzword Awards 2010) on Thursday, and the catchphrases of the title character in the Shinryaku! Ika Musume (Squid Girl) anime were #3 on the list. The awards committee received 188,427 responses about this year's fad words and Internet memes.

The Gold Prize goes to "Sonna Sōbi de Daijōbu ka?" ("You sure that's enough armor?") — the phrase uttered in Ignition Entertainment's promotional preview video for next spring's 3D action game, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. The video was seen over 3.4 million times on the Nico Nico Douga website between June and December 1, and it inspired over 1,900 video responses. Since then, "Sonna (insert word) de Daijōbu?" and "Daijōbu da, mondai nai" (No problem. Everything's fine) became popular back-and-forth responses online.

The Silver Prize winner is "Ryūshutsu (sengoku38)" ("Leaks by user sengoku38") — a reference to videos of the September 2 collision between a Chinese trawler and a Japanese Coast Guard boat. A user named "sengoku38" uploaded the videos of the international incident onto the YouTube website and became a household name in Japan. He was later identified as a Japanese Coast Guard member.

Shinryaku! Ika Musume earned the Bronze Prize for the sentence-ending phrases "-ika?" and "-geso." In Masahiro Anbe's Shinryaku! Ika Musume (The Invader Came From the Bottom of the Sea!) comedy manga and the anime adaptation which premiered in October, a squid girl vows to invade the beaches of mankind since humans have polluted the seas. However, her invasion is less than successful, and she ends up on dry land. Ika Musume/Squid Girl characteristically ends her sentences with either "-ika?" or "-geso" — words that literally mean "squid" and "squid tentacles" in the dictionary.

#10 was "Mune-netsu" — the warm, heart-throbbing feeling of anticipation that fans of the Vocaloid virtual idol character/software Hatsune Miku get.

The Joshi Chūkōsei Keitai Ryūkōgo Taishō 2010 (Female Junior High/High School Mobile Phone Buzzword Awards 2010) survey was conducted at the same time, and the top winner was "Nau (naui)" "Nau" is the trendy Japanese borrowing of the English word "now." "Naui" takes the lexical re-inventing one step further, and it roughly means "now-y" or "now-ish."

The awards committee conducted the online surveys between November 18 and 24 with nine prominent sites: Nico Nico Douga, goo, MobaGe Town, BIGLOBE, Gadget Tsūshin, All About, Ameba, @peps!/Chip!!, and MSN Sankei News.

Image © Masahiro Anbe/Weekly Shōnen Champion © Masahiro Anbe (Weekly Shōnen Champion)/Umi no Ie Lemon